No. !5l.] 417 



imidclle high, they hill it about like a hop-yard. In Aprill they be- 

 gin to plant, but their chiefe plantations is in May, and so they 

 continue till the midst of lune. What they plant in Aprill, they 

 reape in August: for May in September; for lune in October. 

 Every stalke of their corne commonly beareth two eares, some three, 

 seldome any foure, many but one, and some none. Every eare 

 ordinarily hath betv/ixt 200 and 500 graines. The stalke being 

 greene hath a sweet iuice in it, somewhat like sugar-cane, which is 

 the cause that when they gather their corne greene, they sucke the 

 stalkes; for as we gather greene pease, so doe they their corner 

 which excelleth their old. ***** Their corne they rost in the 

 eare greene, and bruising it in morter of wood with a polt, lap it in 

 rowles in the leaues of their corne, and so boyle it for a daintie. 

 They also reserue that corne late planted that will not ripe, by roast- 

 ing it in hot ashes, the heat thereof drying it. In winter they es- 

 teeme it being boyled with beanes for a rare dish, they call Pausa- 

 rowmena. Their old wheat (maize) they first steepe a night in hot 

 water, in the morning pounding it in a morter. They vse a small 

 basket for their temmes (sieve), then pound againe the great, and so 

 separating by dashing their hand in the basket, receiue the flower 

 in a platter made of wood, scraped to that forme with burning and 

 shels. Tempering this flower with water, they make it either in 

 cakes covering them with ashes till they be baked, and then wash- 

 ing (hem in faire water, they drie presently with their owne heat: 

 or else boyle them in water, eating the broth with the bread 

 which they call Ponap. The groutes and peeces of the cornes re- 

 maining, by fanning in a platter or in the wind, away, the branne 

 they boyle 3 or 4 houres with water, which is an ordinary food they 

 call Vstatakamen. But some more thriftie then cleanly, doe burne the 

 core (cob) of the eare to powder, which they call Pungnoiigh^ 

 min^lino: that in their meale. but it never tasted well in bread nor 

 broth." 



Mr. Schoolcraft in his late Report, says, that it is conceded on all 

 bands, that this is a tropical, or at least, a southern plant. He re- 

 marks, that it was not known in Europe before the discovery of this 

 country, and that we learned the mode of cultivation from the Indians, 

 and not they from us. It was cultivated by the Iroquois in fields 

 sufficiently large to entitle them to the name of agriculturists. It 

 was undoubtedly highly prized by them, as an essential article of 

 support, as Mr. Schoolcraft states that the warriors of the Six Na- 

 tions were in the habit of undertaking journeys of thousands of miles 



[Assembly, No. 151.] 27 



